Governor, thank you.
President Steger, thank you very much. Students, and faculty, and
staff, and grieving family members, and members of this really
extraordinary place.

Laura and I have come to
Blacksburg today with hearts full of sorrow. This is a day of
mourning for the Virginia Tech community -- and it is a day of
sadness for our entire nation. We've come to express our sympathy.
In this time of anguish, I hope you know that people all over this
country are thinking about you, and asking God to provide comfort
for all who have been affected.

Yesterday began like any
other day. Students woke up, and they grabbed their backpacks and
they headed for class. And soon the day took a dark turn, with
students and faculty barricading themselves in classrooms and
dormitories -- confused, terrified, and deeply worried. By the end
of the morning, it was the worst day of violence on a college campus
in American history -- and for many of you here today, it was the
worst day of your lives.

It's impossible to make
sense of such violence and suffering. Those whose lives were taken
did nothing to deserve their fate. They were simply in the wrong
place at the wrong time. Now they're gone -- and they leave behind
grieving families, and grieving classmates, and a grieving nation.

In such times as this,
we look for sources of strength to sustain us. And in this moment of
loss, you're finding these sources everywhere around you. These
sources of strength are in this community, this college community.
You have a compassionate and resilient community here at Virginia
Tech. Even as yesterday's events were still unfolding, members of
this community found each other; you came together in dorm rooms and
dining halls and on blogs. One recent graduate wrote this:

I don't know most of you guys,
but we're all Hokies, which means we're family. To all of you
who are okay, I'm happy for that. For those of you who are in
pain or have lost someone close to you, I'm sure you can call on
anyone of us and have help any time you need it.

These sources of
strength are with your loved ones. For many of you, your first
instinct was to call home and let your moms and dads know that you
were okay. Others took on the terrible duty of calling the relatives
of a classmate or a colleague who had been wounded or lost. I know
many of you feel awfully far away from people you lean on, people
you count on during difficult times. But as a dad, I can assure you,
a parent's love is never far from their child's heart. And as you
draw closer to your own families in the coming days, I ask you to
reach out to those who ache for sons and daughters who will never
come home.

These sources of
strength are also in the faith that sustains so many of us. Across
the town of Blacksburg and in towns all across America, houses of
worship from every faith have opened their doors and have lifted you
up in prayer. People who have never met you are praying for you;
they're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are
injured. There's a power in these prayers, real power. In times like
this, we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God.
As the Scriptures tells us, "Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome
evil with good."¹

And on this terrible day
of mourning, it's hard to imagine that time will come when life at
Virginia Tech will return to normal. But such a day will come. And
when it does, you will always remember the friends and teachers who
were lost yesterday, and the time you shared with them, and the
lives they hoped to lead.